


Younger than You?!

by DawnsEternalLight



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Gen, Red Robin, Robin - Freeform, de-aged Tim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-24 05:31:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7495776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnsEternalLight/pseuds/DawnsEternalLight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Meaning to help stop a break-in Damian instead finds Tim, tiny, angry, and six-years-old.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Younger than You?!

Damian could think of little else worse than having to rush off at the tail end of his patrol to rescue Red Robin from a break in at Star Labs temporary HQ in Gotham. Unfortunately, Batman was too far away, Nightwing was currently halfway across the country, and the Red Hood was out with Arsenal catching some big bad. That left Robin as the only one to answer the distress call. 

When Damian swung down through a broken glass panel the building was silent aside from the quiet hum of computers. Their light, paired with Damian’s flashlight illuminated the wrecked room. Tables were upended, chairs broken, and displays cracked. It was a miracle any of the machines were still working.

Damian silently worked his way through the room, cautious of any surprise attacks that might come, while on the lookout for Red Robin. His foot caught on a piece of fabric that pulled taught when he tried to step forward, followed by a low moan.

He turned his light down on what looked like a bundle of red and black fabric, that had apparently just made a noise. Damian knelt by it, tugging a corner of the fabric up to reveal the sleeping face of a little kid somewhere around six-years-old.

That couldn’t be right, because tucked under what he was quickly realizing was a cape, was a utility belt and a badge with an RR. This child could not be Red Robin. There was simply no way that was possible.

Bleary blue eyes blinked at him and the kid, who definitely could not be Drake, sat up and rubbed his head, "Robin? Did you get the guy?" His voice was pitched higher than Tim's but it was in the same general range like what he might sound like as a six-year-old. 

Damian raised an eyebrow at him, “We have bigger problems than if I caught the guy or not."

Those blue eyes frowned at him, "What do you mean?"

Damian grinned, he couldn't help it, his mind was catching up with the fact that Tim Drake had been de-aged or at least shrunk. There were so many possibilities associated with either of those options, so many diabolical possibilities.

"Take a look at yourself."

Tim looked down at the pools of fabric around him and held his much smaller hands out to examine before they went to his face, "What? How? This has to be a trick. Damian what did you do!?"

"I had nothing to do with this, Drake. I just arrived."

Tim got to his feet, or at least he tried to. His first attempt ended in him slipping on the edge of his cape. On his second he tripped in his overly large shoes. He cursed the whole way down and Damian gave up any chance at trying to keep from laughing at him, the high pitched cursing coming from him was too much for the temporarily older Robin.

When Damian managed to catch his breath Tim was pouting, arms crossed in a puddle of cape. Damian picked him up and pulled him away from the pile, Tim desperately grabbing at the loose clothing to keep it from falling off him. When Damian set him down Tim got to work rolling his sleeves and pant legs and tightening the belt he wore.

"We're going to have to do something about your clothes," Damian mused.

"You think?" Tim snapped.

"Don't get mad at me, I didn't cause this. How did you managed to end up de-aged?"

Tim paused his adjustment to look at Damian, "I was fighting with a group of men over some device they were trying to steal, I’d just grabbed it when there was a flash and the next thing I knew I woke up like this."

"I believe it was a de-aging device," He went back to adjusting his uniform, "We're probably going to have to get it back to fix me."

"We're going to have to get it back either way," Damian pointed out, "I hope you at least put a tracer on it?"

"Of course I did," Tim said before standing from his stoop, "How do I look?"

"Ridiculous, but it should do until we get back to the cave." 

Tim shook his head, “We’re not going back to the cave, not until we find that machine. I’m not staying this way one moment longer than I have to.”

“I hate to be the one to point this out, Drake, but you’re in no condition to go after the machine. The best thing would be for me to drop you off and find it on my own.”

Tim set his jaw and Damian had to resist grinning again, maybe this was why Grayson was always smiling around him? Had he looked that way when he was pouting?

Tim narrowed his eyes at him, “I can tell by the way you’re trying not to smile what you’re thinking, and the answer is no you don’t look adorable when you’re pouting, that’s a trait reserved for six-year-olds and nice children.”

Damian scowled, “I was not thinking that. Now come on, I have to hurry if I’m going to get that machine back, or do you want to stay six?" 

“I told you, I’m going to get the device back, do you really want to explain to Bruce why you were too late to keep me from getting turned into a kid?” Tim crossed his arms and one of the sleeves began to unroll.

“That was not my fault,” Damian pointed out, “I think he’d prefer I kept a _kid_ out of danger,” he grinned at the word kid.

“You’re a kid.”

“I’m older than you are.”

“Temporarily.”

Damian’s eyebrow twitched, they were getting nothing done arguing like this, “Fine, but first we get you some clothes that fit. I’m not going to be held responsible if you die because your pants unrolled and got caught in your grappling hook.”

The looks they got upon entering the 24 hour Walmart were priceless, it wasn’t often Robin was seen accompanied by a six-year-old in a Red Robin ‘costume’ four sizes too big for him. Damian even managed to get an employee to take a picture of him with Tim, pacifying Tim with a “In case we need it to prove the device’s ability.”

They managed to find some sturdy black workout gear that would both fit Tim and allow him to fight, a pair of comfy tennis shoes, and Damian insisted on elbow and knee pads. He was pushing for a helmet because he knew better than anyone how easy it was to crack open your head at six, but Tim flat out refused.

Tim was already pulling up a map with the device’s location blinking in red on it, “We’re fifteen minutes out if we hurry. 

“Then let’s hurry,” Damian nodded.

The closer they got to the location the deeper the pit in Damian’s stomach grew. He knew it was stupid to be worried about Tim, so far Red Robin had handled everything perfectly. He’d had no trouble using the grappling hook and his mental facilities seemed to be those of his normal age, still Damian found himself worrying.

Perhaps it had to do with the fact that Tim now looked and sounded like a kid, there was something about the idea of a six-year-old running headlong into a fight with grown adults that bothered him. Again, it was something Damian didn’t understand. He’d been fine fighting with the assassins at the League at the age of six, so why did the thought of Tim doing that bother him?

It couldn’t be that he was actually worried about his brother, could it? No, even for a failure of Robin like Drake he could handle himself fine most of the time. Damian bit his lip, most of the time was key, he glanced at Tim, smaller than usual which meant he had a lot to make up for in a fight. Ok, so yeah he was a little worried about Tim, but he wasn’t going to admit that, not if he could help it.

“It’s inside that building,” Tim pointed to a two story warehouse across from them, “Second floor, somewhere near the middle of the building. I’m getting four heat signatures from here, though there could be more.”

Damian nodded, “Before we go in- 

“What? We need to hurry.”

Damian shook his head, “Remember you’re going to have to compensate for your smaller form when fighting. I don’t want to waste my time having to save you every few seconds.”

Tim scowled, “I’ll be fine, just focus on getting back the device.”

They went in through the roof, lucky enough to have found a skylight over the very room the device was supposed to be located in. The plan was to knock out all four men, at least that was the plan until Tim slipped from the wire and landed on top of one of them.

Damian dropped down next to him and tugged him to his feet, “What did I say about compensating?" 

“I was! I just overcompensated.”

“Look boys, we’ve got some tiny crime fighters, you guys think you can take us?” One of the men was grinning.

Damian grinned at them, “Tt, we can more than take you.”

The one Tim fell into was standing back up and glaring, “Oh yeah? Try it.”

Damian dove at one of them while Tim took on another. Damian had the man unconscious in a moment, moving onto the next one, while casting a quick glance at Tim to make sure he was doing alright. That quick glance cost him his advantage and he found himself thrown against a wall. 

He didn’t have time for this, Tim would be fine, at least he told himself that as he kicked forward knocking the man away from him. He had the second man out a few moments later, and there in the corner he spotted a long metal tube with a series of buttons on the side facing him.

He dove for it, there was nothing obvious about how it worked, but he could figure it out given enough time. He resisted checking on Tim again, so far he hadn’t heard anything that would hint at Tim being in trouble so he set his mind to focusing on the display he’d just managed to pull up.

He’d just selected what was basically the undo option when Tim yelled, it was something between a scream and a yelp of surprise and Damian had turned around in an instant. The last man conscious had grabbed Tim by his hair and had him held aloft. Damian grit his teeth and almost darted forward to attack when he remembered the tech behind him.

He snatched it and fired it off in the direction of Tim, praying he’d gotten the settings right and he wasn’t about to turn his brother into a baby or worse. When the flash faded there stood a fully grown Tim. The man who’d been holding him was too shocked to react, before Tim knocked him out with a punch to the face.

“Thanks, Robin,” he turned to grin at Damian but stopped when he saw his brother.

Damian was doubled over in a fit of laughter, the de-aging device forgotten on the floor beside him. His laughing fit was cut off every so often by hiccups and gasping breaths, “You- you loo-,” he tried but just shook his head.

Tim glanced down and groaned, he almost wished he was still a kid. The clothes he’d changed into were obviously too small, tugged up high on his calves and arms, and starting to tear at all the seams.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, Robin, did you bring my uniform?” he looked back up only to blink as a flash lit up the room they were in.

“What was that? Dami-Robin did you just take a picture? Give me that phone now!”

Damian grinned as he backed away from Tim, tapping quickly on his phone before he reached the spot just under the skylight they’d come in through, “Too slow, I’ve sent that one to everyone in the family, and it looks like Red Hood is already responding.”

Tim swiped again at Damian, but missed as the kid yanked his grappling hook out and shot it upwards, pulling himself out of the way, “Your uniform’s out here, but you can’t have it if you forget the de-aging device,” Damian called down after him.

“Don’t move a muscle, Demon Brat! When I get up there, you’ll see just what this de-aging device can do!”

“Right, I’d like to see you explain that one to Father, right after you’re done explaining the picture I sent him,” Damian grinned at him, happy that at least tonight he’d been wrong when he’d thought going after Tim was the worst thing that could happen.


End file.
